H. A. Baylis 
417 
“ Length of body (a female) 4 inches. 
“ IIab. Intestines of Herpetodryas boddaertii, a snake from the 
West Indies.” 
Owing to the fact that there is but a single specimen, I am unable 
to give a complete account of the species. The following points, however, 
may be added to the diagnosis. 
The length has been somewhat over-stated. The specimen measures 
9 cm. (about 3J in.). The vulva is situated at 5 cm. from the anterior 
end. The vagina, after running in a posterior direction for about 7 mm., 
opens into an oval uterine chamber, measuring 3 mm. in length and 
1-5 mm. in width. This gives off, laterally and posteriorly, no less than 
six wide uterine tubes, which follow a sinuous course, parallel to each 
other, backwards to within about 1-3 cm. from the posterior end of 
the body, where they pass into the narrower ovarian tubes. The coils 
of the latter occupy all the available space within the body from near 
the posterior end to a short distance in front of the vulva. 
The presence of more than two uterine branches renders it necessary 
to refer this species, not to Ascaris, sensu stricto, but to Polydelphis , 
Dujardin, 1845. Whether the Ascarids of this type ( i.e . with four or 
more uterine branches) should be regarded as forming a genus or a 
sub-genus (the latter being the view taken by Dujardin) is at present, 
perhaps, a matter of uncertainty. So far as is known at present, they 
represent a branch of the Ascarid family restricted in their habitat to 
the intestines of snakes. 
Ascaris salvini. 
Ascaris salvini Baird, 1860, p. 446. 
„ „ 1861, p. 228. 
„ Orley, 1882, p. 310. 
„ Stossich, 1896, p. 74. 
Baird’s description (1860) appears to be the only one existing of 
this form. His second notice (1861) is a repetition, word for word, of 
the former diagnosis. The later authors have merely included the 
name of the species in their catalogues of Ascaris , but have added nothing 
to the description. 
There is a single specimen, which appears to be a female, and 
is now in so poor a state of preservation that a fuller description is 
impossible. Baird, whose description is concerned only with external 
features, appears to have considered this form to be closely allied to 
Ascaris ( Ascaridia ) inflexa, and in his interleaved copy of the British 
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